Can Group-Housed Sows be Raised at Lower Temperatures to Reduce Barn Heating Costs?

Posted in: Pork Insight Articles, Prairie Swine Centre by admin on November 20, 2014

In this project, an operant mechanism that will allow sows housed in a group system to control their own environmental temperature was developed. The mechanism was configured with a manual control switch that the sows can access and operate, which in turn activated the supplementary room heating system, as well as a localized radiant heater above the location of the switch as an immediate reward. Testing of a prototype system installed in a controlled-environment chamber with two sows showed that the mechanism functioned satisfactorily to allow the sows to control their environmental temperature. Preparations for subsequent tests in group-housed sow gestation rooms to assess overall heating cost savings, associated sow behavior, and optimal dietary requirements when raised at lower temperatures are underway.

It was hypothesized that sows housed in groups can be maintained at lower environmental temperature because the sows have the opportunity to exhibit thermoregulatory behavior such as huddling when the barn temperature is lowered, thereby saving on energy to heat the barn. As such, the objective of this project was to develop a mechanism that will allow group-housed sows to operate the heating system in their airspace and maintain the environment at their preferred temperature.  An operant mechanism comprised of a manual control switch that operated the existing supplementary heating system for the sow room as well as a small radiant heater placed above the area of the switch as an immediate feedback reward was developed.  Th e underlying principle for this operant mechanism has been successfully implemented in a study to assess the temperature preference of nursery pigs (Bench and Gonyou 2007).

PSC_Operant_Conditioning

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